Italic Languages - Branches

Branches

The Italic family has two known branches:

• Latino-Faliscan, including:
  • Faliscan, which was spoken in the area around Falerii Veteres (modern Civita Castellana) north of the city of Rome and possibly Sardinia
  • Latin, which was spoken in west-central Italy. The Roman conquests eventually spread it throughout the peninsula and beyond in the Roman Empire.
    • Romance languages, the descendants of Latin
• Osco-Umbrian or Sabellian including:
  • Oscan, which was spoken in the south-central region of the Italian Peninsula
  • Umbrian (not to be confused with the modern Umbrian dialect of Italian), which was spoken in the north-central region
  • Volscian
  • Marsian, the language of the Marsi
  • South Picene, in east-central Italy
  • Sabine in Lazio and the central Appennines

In addition, Aequian (spoken by the Aequi just east of Rome) and Vestinian (spoken by the Vestini in northeast Italy) are Italic but too poorly known to be further classified. Sicel in Sicily was reported to have been similar to Latin, but too little is known of it to verify that claim.

As Rome extended its political dominion over the whole of the Italian Peninsula, Latin became dominant over the other Italic languages, which ceased to be spoken perhaps sometime in the 1st century AD. From Vulgar Latin the Romance languages emerged.